And believe me, although the winner is generally a fair representation of the great man himself, some of the others are......well shall we say either completely drunk or just deluded.

It's all good fun though and is followed by the bizarre running of the balls, which you can read more of here.

And the second is the dropping of the Conch Shell on New Years Eve.

A kind of homage to the times square ball in New York that was hosted by Dick Clark for years.

It's great to see everyone focused and celebrating the new year outside Sloppy Joes Key West, and certainly I have been there many times and love the vibe of New Years on Duval Street.

The History Of Sloppy Joes

Sloppy Joes has quite a past and has even moved location since first opening its doors in December 1933, the actual day that prohibition was dropped.

Before then if you were going to drink alcohol you needed to be in the know, and either make contact directly with the rum runners who operated in the area, or have entry to your local illegal drinking place - The Speakeasies.

And Key West was full of them, as it has always been a place that has laughed at conformity and regulation.

I suppose that is what makes it so appealing to the wide range of races, sexuality and creative and artistic folk that flock here years after year.

But back in prohibition times, when the government were convinced that stopping the sale of alcohol Americas problems would be a thing of the past, a guy named Joe Russell saw that he could make a killing.

So he would sell his booze to anyone who came along, and even Hemingway himself would pop over to Russell's bar for a drink or two.

However, the name Sloppy Joes did not occur till later when Hemingway himself suggested it due to the wet floor that was always common in the joint.